The ethics of technology has reached the field of educational technology, with relevant transnational bodies like the EU, UNESCO, and the OECD publishing recommendations and guidelines to adopt ethical AI and data in education (Bosen et al., 2023; Directorate-General for Education, 2022; Molina et al., 2024; OECD & Education International, 2023). However, thinking ethically is distinct from doing ethically (Morley et al., 2021). In the field of education, professionals and prospective educators may encounter various challenges when implementing an ethical approach to technology, often focusing on techno-enthusiastic discourses  (Ranieri et al., 2024; Nemorin et al., 2023). Platformisation and datafication have played an incisive role in addressing educators’ attention to the user experience, productivity, and performance under narratives of personalisation and naturalisation of access to technology as a way of quality and inclusion.  Often, users perceive specific frameworks about tech ethics as mere "compliance checklists,"  showing relative engagement or understanding of the technological infrastructures and interests behind them. Critical rules that are overly broad may not include explicit activism or action strategies. In 2024, the authors of this Symposium, representing the perspectives of four EU member states (Germany, Italy, Rumania, and Spain) built a partnership to deepen on the problems of ethics applied to educational technologies, particularly considering AI and data. The project “ETH-TECH” (Anchoring the Ethics of Technology –AI and data- to practice). Aimed at raising awareness on a more articulated vision of applied ethics in the field of educational technology, it also promotes concrete instruments to build possible ethical futures, engaging prospective educators, teachers, and trainers along their initial training.   The “teachiability” of ethics is nevertheless contested, to embrace an idea of ethics as a situated process.   

Applying such lenses, through this Symposium we aim at sharing our foundational efforts to explore concepts and problems connected to the ethics of educational technology, particularly AI and data usages. The first presentation deals with building a common vision of what we intend with an ethical approach to educational technology, and the possibility to educate to such an approach. Our starting step is a pragmatic exploration of problems arising with the application of classical ethics (deontology, or the ethics of universal principles; consequentialism or the ethics of impact; and virtue ethics, or the ethics of individual commitment). Through a participatory approach, we built an apparatus over which basis our project can move forward. The second presentation explores to which extent the ethics of educational technology are part of “written” and hence reified discourses in teachers and education. We analyse nearly 150 syllabi from Italy, Spain, Rumania, and Germany taken from initial teachers, educators and trainers’ education, to map out to which extent ethics is a topic installed or even considered in the current preparation of future educators. The third paper deals with action research based on two sessions (Awareness Raising Sessions or ARS) aimed at connecting public information (syllabi) with situated practices as perceived by education degrees’ professoriate and studentship. The sessions, held in Germany, Italy, Romania, and Spain implemented a common approach, which involves discussing the embedded concept of edtech ethics through mirrors: the EU guidelines on the ethics of AI and data in education; syllabi analysis conducted in each national context and the actual practices identified by professors and students.   

The symposium's contributions hence explore the divergences and convergences in this exercise among the four countries, aiming to illustrate shared objectives and a range of strategies to anchor the ethics of edtech.   

Bosen, L.-L., Morales, D., Roser-Chinchilla, J. F., Sabzalieva, E., Valentini, A., Vieira do Nascimento, D., & Yerovi, C. (2023). Harnessing the era of artificial intelligence in higher education: A primer for higher education stakeholders. UNESCO-IESALC. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386670?locale=en Directorate-General for Education, Y. (2022). Ethical guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data in teaching and learning for educators. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/153756 Morley, J., Elhalal, A., Garcia, F., Kinsey, L., Mökander, J., & Floridi, L. (2021). Ethics as a Service: A Pragmatic Operationalisation of AI Ethics. Minds and Machines, 31(2), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-021-09563-w Nemorin, S., Vlachidis, A., Ayerakwa, H. M., & Andriotis, P. (2023). AI hyped? A horizon scan of discourse on artificial intelligence in education (AIED) and development. Learning, Media and Technology, 48(1), 38–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2022.2095568 OECD, & Education International. (2023). Opportunities, guidelines and guardrails for effective and equitable use of AI in education. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/Opportunities,%20guidelines%20and%20guardrails%20for%20effective%20and%20equitable%20use%20of%20AI%20in%20education.pdf Ranieri, M. (2024) Intelligenza Artificiale a scuola. Una lettura pedagogico-didattica delle sfide e delle opportunità. Rivista di Scienze dell’'Educazione, 62(1), 123-135, https://rivista.pfse-auxilium.org/it/pdf/rse/maria-ranieri_rse01-2024.pdf